


Peoplewatching

by Shawarmerei (livefromarkham)



Series: Avengers High School AU [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, I Need To Just Stop With Tags Forever, M/M, People Watching, The Start Of A Beautiful Relationship Full Of Angsty Angst And Also Feels And Things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-21
Updated: 2012-11-21
Packaged: 2017-11-19 04:11:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/568942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livefromarkham/pseuds/Shawarmerei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint finds Loki spying on him. Loki insists that it's peoplewatching.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peoplewatching

Ever since he was young, Loki had loved peoplewatching. He had never been able to interact with individuals well and hadn’t had many friends apart from his brother, but he was still able to enjoy the peculiarities of human nature through what most would call “spying.”

Loki thought that was a rather harsh term for such a harmless pastime. Looking at people while they went about their lives didn’t hurt them in the slightest, and he got entertainment from it. It was far nicer than playing tricks on them, at least, from which he would have gotten the same amount of entertainment.

At the moment, his attention was focused on a certain archer that he had spent all of the last week surveying. Thor had hockey practice almost every night since the season had started, and Loki was uncomfortable with walking twenty blocks alone to the house where his adoptive father would yell at him for going home without his brother. So, instead, he had taken to hiding under the bleachers at the archery range until his brother was finished. None of his typical aggressors could find him, and he could admire his favorite—well, maybe _second_ favorite—person in the world.

Meanwhile, the person in question had noticed Loki’s return for several days now, as possibly the most perceptive Avenger and certainly the most in the room, but he still hadn’t figured out who exactly the teen was. He wasn’t sure why the freshman in the black hoodie and green Converse had decided to hole up under the nearby seating for several days in a row, but he wasn’t about to ask questions. He was here for a purpose.

His bow released, and the arrow flew into its intended target as it always did. His aim was perfect, as it always was. But his constant practice was necessary to keep his skills as great as they were. He sometimes fantasized about taking out one of the gym lights in a fit of spontaneity, but there were far too many witnesses here for him to be able to get away with it. He had found the urge increase since the freshman under the bleachers had started coming, as if he were intrigued by how the boy would react. Given how little Clint knew about him save for his wardrobe, he was completely unpredictable.

He put down the bow, but the urge to find out the identity of the boy was still prominent. He had managed to ignore it for about a week, but he couldn’t tame his curiosity anymore. Striding over to the wooden bleachers, he focused on the spot where he had seen green eyes peering out at him once or twice. They were still there today, interest shifting to fear as he approached.

The eyes blinked once, twice, then disappeared. Clint was confident that he could outrun the freshman, so he let him flee for a few seconds. He watched pale hands pull a dark hood over darker hair as he ran out of the gym. It was then that Clint decided to begin his pursuit. After all, anyone would be curious about why the younger brother of one of their best friends was spying on them.

The older boy had been right about his capabilities, at least. He caught up to Loki with only a little struggle: he had underestimated the younger’s speed. But it was still easy enough, and he caught Loki’s wrist without a hassle. They both stopped running, though Loki still tried to wrest his arm from Clint’s grasp.

“Why were you watching me?”

Laufeyson squirmed, and Barton didn’t relent.

“Answer my question, Loki.”

He bit his lip, staring at the ground and shifting uncomfortably.

“Loki, goddamn it, look at me.”

He finally did move his gaze upward, but kept his head down in order to execute his well-practiced kicked puppy look. He had never needed it as badly as he did right now. Nor had he ever meant it more, though he was more ashamed that he had gotten caught than he was that he had been watching Clint in the first place.

“You’re not getting out of this just because you look pitiful. I know it works on Thor all the damn time, but I’m not giving in. I want to know why you’ve been hiding under the bleachers for a week and spying on me.”

“It’s not spying,” Loki protested quietly. “It’s peoplewatching.”

Clint rolled his eyes. “Whatever you call it, you were still following me. What were you doing?”

The freshman looked back down to the floor. “Thor has hockey practice.”

“And?” Loki squirmed again, trying to escape Clint’s questioning, but to no avail. “I’m not letting go until I’m satisfied with your answers.”

The black-haired teen sighed and stopped struggling. “And I have nowhere to go after school where I won’t be beaten unless I’m there, hiding. I thought I might as well watch someone I knew while I waited for Thor to be done. It makes me a little less scared.” The half-lies were so fluid, falling from his tongue. He didn’t think he could have mustered up the courage to tell Clint the truth, but neither would his moral compass allow him to entirely lie to his crush. 

The half-truth would have to do.

“Have you told Thor yet?” Clint seemed to believe it—like they always did, he was good at lying except to Odin—and he looked concerned. “No,” he replied, and this time he was telling the truth. He had never told Thor that he had been beaten up a few times after school since the hockey season had started. He also hadn’t told Thor that he had taken to “hanging out” in the gym, but where Loki stayed after school was irrelevant to Thor as long as he was safe and enjoying himself.

And he had been, until now. Now he was just plain uncomfortable.

“Do you have any proof?” There was the skepticism, which he should have suspected from Clint in the first place. Loki swallowed his pride and lifted the bangs that typically covered half his face to show a black eye and a swollen cheek. Still more bruises were on his arms and neck, which he revealed when he removed his sweatshirt.

“When did you get these?” The question was blunt, and the frustration and anger was hidden under a thin mask of disgust. The freshman closed his eyes. “Some are from a few days ago. The… the black eye is from before I got here today.”

“So they don’t even wait ten minutes after school to throw punches at you.” The archer rolled his eyes as he gritted his teeth. “You’re walking here with me until the season’s over.”

“What?” Loki blinked, his hair falling back into place.

“We have the same last class of the day together. I’ll walk with you to your locker, you walk with me to mine, we go to the gym and you stay there until Thor is done. You don’t have to sit under the bleachers, and if anyone says differently, they’ll have to take it up with me. You’re kind of an ass sometimes, Loki, but no one deserves what you’re going through.” He paused for a minute. “And I’m telling Thor about this.”

Loki’s expression changed to one of terror. “Please don’t. I don’t want to get him in trouble. And knowing him, he’ll want to beat up everyone that so much as giggled when it happened. You know how he is.”

Clint snorted. “Yeah, I do. But I still don’t want to keep this secret from him. He deserves to know what you’re going through, because he cares about you. I do too, believe it or not.” Loki’s eyes widened. “We all care about you, Loki. You’re practically antisocial and you can get kind of annoying and stuck-up, but you’re still part of the group, if only because of Thor. None of us want to see you hurt.” He let go of Loki’s wrist. “And if you’d be willing to get more involved and maybe try changing your attitude a little, we might even consider you a friend. I know that I don’t mind having you around. Otherwise I wouldn’t have offered to stick up for you.”

The freshman shuffled awkwardly. “Thanks…?”

“It’s still an hour until he gets out. Do you want to hang out until then? I’m more than willing to pay for a couple of burgers or something.”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” His gaze shifted to the floor once again, and it remained on the ground for a very long time.

It was at about the point when Clint started swearing at the Dairy Queen drive-thru attendant that Loki suddenly became conflicted about whether peoplewatching was worth the trouble.


End file.
